Housing starts data from the US Census Bureau:
– Prior reading was 1174K (revised to 1204K)
– That’s above the April post-crisis of 1190K
– Building permits 1119K vs 1228K expected
Building permits surged to 1337K over the last three months from 1038K in March. There were some special factors driving the jump and they’re running off. The sharp drop shouldn’t be a surprise.